Saturday night comedian Russell Peters takes his bold brand of cultural comedy to Radio City Music Hall.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123131827
Comedian Russel Peters describes how his present day comedy act draws upon his childhood. While he was often the target of bullying from other classmates due to his ethnicity, he found he could "sidestep" a beatdown by making light of their stereotypes. He explains "Because I was so small and didn't know how to fight, or couldn't fight back, I would try to flip the situation so that the bully would end up laughing and they're thinking I'm making fun of myself". This got me thinking (a DANGEROUS pastime for someone of my mental capacity, as I can only engage in this precarious activity between VERY deep breaths), is this a healthy defense mechanism? While Peters was preserving his own skin, was his self-deprecating activity reinforcing stereotypes? Were his punchlines actually increasing the frequency of PUNCH OUT'S for other not-so-funny minority children? Can you imagine? "Make me laugh beaner, or I'll knock your teeth out!". I'd like to think we are better off arming our youth with awareness and information, not a lengthy catalog of knock-knock jokes. What do YOU think?
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123131827
Comedian Russel Peters describes how his present day comedy act draws upon his childhood. While he was often the target of bullying from other classmates due to his ethnicity, he found he could "sidestep" a beatdown by making light of their stereotypes. He explains "Because I was so small and didn't know how to fight, or couldn't fight back, I would try to flip the situation so that the bully would end up laughing and they're thinking I'm making fun of myself". This got me thinking (a DANGEROUS pastime for someone of my mental capacity, as I can only engage in this precarious activity between VERY deep breaths), is this a healthy defense mechanism? While Peters was preserving his own skin, was his self-deprecating activity reinforcing stereotypes? Were his punchlines actually increasing the frequency of PUNCH OUT'S for other not-so-funny minority children? Can you imagine? "Make me laugh beaner, or I'll knock your teeth out!". I'd like to think we are better off arming our youth with awareness and information, not a lengthy catalog of knock-knock jokes. What do YOU think?
About a year ago, I watched this clip from a show by Russell Peters:
"Beating your Children"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4oO7ZdfSFI
He talks about differences in children's education practices between cultural groups, specifically, about the use of physical punishment. He talks about it in a humorous way, but I think that, although it is a generalization, it reflects real cultural differences between groups. India is a vertical-collectivistic culture, where hierarchies and respect for authorities are very important.
At the time, I found it strange that he would make fun of his own cultural group; however, it can be healthy to laugh at oneself, and after reading this article I can see that humor helped him cope with the distress from his childhood, being different from others in his community. It would be interesting to study if humor can help targets of stereotypes and discrimination to cope with the emotional distress, or if in fact it is more detrimental to their self-esteem.